1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to cost-savings reporting and more specifically to cost-savings reporting associated with the difference in cost between communicating content from a content server and communicating that same content directly from the content server to individual clients using individual data stream connections.
2. Introduction
Classic radio broadcasting is limited to specific geographic areas associated with the radio station, the radio station tower, and any repeater radio towers broadcasting the audio signal. While differences in tower signal strengths and attenuation differences between Frequency Modulation (FM) and Amplitude Modulation (AM) radio signals could vary specific broadcast distances, generally radio broadcasts are limited to a radius of several hundred miles. While repeater radio towers can increase this distance, such broadcast capability is often restricted by cost or by regulations from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).
For radio broadcasts to reach larger audiences, many stations have begun communicating their audio signals over the Internet. This communication over the Internet generally requires the radio station to use a server capable of producing a multitude of connections, or sockets, where a connection can communicate data to one of a group of clients accepting the content over the internet. These connections all require a large use of bandwidth, which can be costly to maintain. As an alternative to communicating through Internet connections and using large amounts of bandwidth, some broadcasters have begun uploading communications to a server connected to phone lines. Users can then establish a telephone connection and through that telephone connection listen to streaming audio. Communicating content over a telephone connection can be advantageous because it utilizes telephone networks, such as the public switched telephone network, which can be significantly more cost-efficient to content providers than data networking over the Internet. Unknown, however, is precisely how advantageous this move can be for any given content provider.